Geek and other stuff ….

Time-Warner recently spun off its cable company in the US. They’ve introduced a tiered service plan for internet access. The top plan offers 100 gig at 10mbps for US$75 per month. If you go over your allocation in any month, you’ll be charged $1 per gig, capped at $75. That means a potential monthly internet bill of US$150. Does 175 gig per month sound like a lot? Not with a multitude of websites streaming HD video movies and TV, among other content. I would suppose that HK ISPs are watching this closely.

Over in France, Sarkozy’s attempt to pass a bill that would allow cutting off internet service for people who were thought to be pirating audio and video, failed to pass in the National Assembly. Most lawmakers decided to skip the vote – there are 577 members but the bill failed with a vote of just 21-15. The bill will be resubmitted in a somewhat different form.

The iPhone app store is getting close to 1 billion downloads. That’s in less than a year. The person who downloads the billionth app will win a US$10,000 iTunes gift card, a MacBook Pro and other goodies. Follow the link to see the all-time top 20 free and paid apps.

I’ve downloaded 85 apps, probably about 70 or so free ones. The ones I use most are Bloomberg, Evernote, HK Mark Six, Hong Kong Weather, mSecure, Oblique Strategies, Pocket God, Remember the Milk, plus a backgammon game and various unit and currency converters.

Hongkie Town
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